Having had the honor of serving as United States Marines, we take seriously the threats that our young service men and women face while defending our country and our liberty. When these threats exist because the United States is the protector of the world’s global oil supply lines, it is a clear illustration of how our nation’s over-reliance on a single, globally-priced fuel impacts our national and economic security.

To liberate the United States from the immense costs of this role and the destructive effects of oil price volatility, the nation requires an oil security policy that, over the long term, decouples our transportation sector from the global oil market. The costs — in both blood and treasure to the United States — are too high not to act. ...

Regarding electrification, the beauty of plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf is that they are powered by electricity, which can be generated from many sources: nuclear, coal, natural gas, and renewables. Best yet, these are all domestic energy sources, meaning OPEC won’t be able to corner the market. And the retail price of electricity is far less volatile that the price of oil.

While the right-wing criticism of the Volt is way off base, I think it is quite a stretch to expect that running a fleet of hybrids and electric cars will reduce America's geopolitical aspirations enough to keep the Marines at home. But Lutz's emotional argument may well resonate with the typical Forbes reader more than the facts.

I'm also not sure if we can count on less volatile electricity prices. The US has some of the lowest electricity rates in the world, and while rates vary a lot depending on where you live, the inflation-adjusted average has been steady for a long time. But that won't necessarily continue to be the case. According to Black and Veatch's 2011 electric utility industry survey PDF, "more than 70 percent of all respondents agree or strongly agree with the statement energy and commodity prices will rise significantly in the next five years."

Why? Aging infrastructure, lack of investment in infrastructure, water supply and effluent problems, and even loss of competitiveness. "More than 65 percent of respondents believe that the United States is at risk of losing its domestic design and construction skills, equipment manufacturing capacities and global competitive position in utility technology, ..."

Even if electricity costs stay level, I think chargeable cars will be a niche market until prices drop. If I won a lottery, I'd buy one in a minute, but it would be a Twike—and I never play the lottery.

Proponents of electric cars like to say that the adoption curve so far looks like that of hybrids in the 1990s. That's true enough, but whether the technology will continue on that path -- whether it'll make the leap from gadget-geek novelty to the mass market, as hybrids have -- is still very much an open question. And there are real reasons to be skeptical.

The secret to the success of hybrid cars, after all, was that they didn't require anything new and different from their drivers. For the most part, living with a hybrid is like living with any other car: You drive it the same way, with the same controls; you put gas in it at any gas station when the tank runs low; you take it for an oil change every now and then and have the dealer check it over once every year or so. Nothing about the hybrid-ness of it requires a major change in consumer behavior -- or in consumers' expectations.

That's not true of electric cars. ...

Just over 17,000 electric vehicles were sold in the U.S. last year, which sounds like a lot -- but that's less than one-tenth of 1% of the total market, about equal to the number of F-series pickups that Ford sells every 10 days or so.

Comments

I recently rode in a CWAPSI Honda Civic. It was a cab owned by its driver who runs a one man operation in my small city. It was a factory setup for natural gas as fuel and the owner/ operator was quite proud of it. He told me that the fuel was priced in energy equivalence with a gallon of gasoline and the current cost s i$1.60 for a gallon equivalent. For the short slow speed stop and go city drive the computer readout indicated slightly over thirty MPG. He said that there are enough places available along the Wasatch Front on I-15 but that he didn't think the infrastructure was widely enough available to allow roaming anywhere/everywhere in the country.

As someone who had a speech impediment as a child, most notably having my "r" sound like "w", I can't say I much care for the name of the Twike. Its price is rather high, as well—it's nearly $25,000 dollars, not including the battery! (If you want the top-of-the-line battery, it'll nearly double the cost. Even the cheapest battery will set you back another $8,500 dollars.)

[....] Last month, Jared Kushner announced the Administration’s support for the bill in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that the six million Americans in local and federal prisons are included among “the forgotten men and women” that Trump vowed to fight for during his Presidential campaign.. “Get a bill to my desk, and I will sign it,” Trump promised. The House passed the bill this week.

President Trump on Thursday canceled a planned summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the rogue nation in a letter explaining his abrupt decision.

“I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump said to Kim in a letter released by the White House on Thursday morning.

The summit had been planned for June 12 in Singapore.

In his letter, Trump held open the possibility that the two leaders could meet at a later date to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which Trump has been pushing.

"President Trump’s unprecedented meeting on Monday with the FBI director and deputy attorney general regarding a case in which he is directly involved may turn out to be the defining moment of his presidency and for his party. Bob Bauer at the Lawfare blog writes:

North Korea is threatening to reconsider Kim Jong Un’s participation in a summit with President Trump next month, saying it is up to the United States to decide whether it wants to “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”

Stacey Abrams just one the Democratic Gubernatorial race in Georgia by roughly 3:1. She could become the first black and first female Governor of Georgia. It looks like the Republican candidate will be chosen after a runoff election since no one reached 50% of the vote.

Evans argued that Democrats could win by appealing to moderate Republicans. Abrams argued that the party needs to focus on disaffected Democrats. Abrams won. Abrams even won Democrats in northern Georgia with small minority populations.

Kendrick Lamar brought on a white fan onstage to rap along with his song “m.A.A.D. City”. When the fan rapped the song as written, repeating the N-word three times, Lamar halted the performance. He told the fan that she could not use the word. She apologized. He gave her a second chance. She almost rapped the word again, the crowd was not having it. Lamar ushered the fan off stage and continued the performance.

The audience responded negatively to the white fan using the words on stage. She lost the crowd with the first use of the words. Some did point out that she was just rapping the words as written.